Plague in the Land of Equestria

Chapter 10: Fillydelphia

Rainbow Dash was thinking to herself as she trudged along the trail. This disease, if that's what it was, had come out of nowhere. Overnight, it had decimated Equestria's population. No disease could spread that fast! Rainbow Dash had a very hard time believing everything that had been happening to her, even though she had lived through it. Tears welled in her eyes; she had been killing ponies! It wasn't their fault they were like that! Dash had been too worried about the future of her and her friends to really dwell on what she had been doing. Once her mind went to the thought of her friends... the way she had just brushed off the deaths of Rarity and Spike! They were very dear friends of hers, they at least deserved a burial and proper respects!

"Rainbow Dash! Catch up!" Rainbow Dash suddenly snapped back to reality, and she realized that she had fallen far behind the rest of the group. Gathering her thoughts, Rainbow Dash shook her head and galloped to the front of the group. They were out in the open, and vulnerable to the infected; she had to keep her wits with her. Yet that little twinge of depression and regret lingered in her chest, threatening to consume her...

"Look! I see Fillydelphia!" Fluttershy exclaimed with excitement, though the others could still barely hear her.

"Hold up. Let me get a better look!" Dash warned, then took off into the air, shooting straight up.

Fillydelphia was definitely looking the worse for wear. Though in it's day, it didn't look that different from PonyVille, right now, it was downright terrible. Concrete shards and other various bits of rubble littered the majority of the once-great town. Blood could be seen where unlucky townsfolk where caught and pinned down by infected, and clusters of bones, and even piles of very decomposed flesh, still remained. Large, black pits of ash remained where disaster fires once burned. While plants had not yet started to take over the remains, weed clumps still poked through cracks in the streets and sidewalks. Although Fillydelphia obviously took quite a beating from the infection, no wanderers were seen anywhere in the city.

"Alright, we're good, for a while. Looks like they all left in search of food," said Rainbow Dash, as she rejoined the group and touched the ground.

"What if they aren't?" Pinkie spoke for the first time in a while. "What if they're just hiding?"

"We'll be fine," snapped Soarin. "We came here because we heard it's safe. I was beat to hell so we can all get here alive, so I implore you cut the bullshit and get a fucking move one."

"Can it, Soarin!" Dash retorted. "You can go first, if you're so eager to get in there!"

"With pleasure," breathed Soarin, both angrily and sarcastically. He started hovering a few feet from the ground, and drifted across the city limits. His hooves touched the ground as he turned and shouted, "see? I'm fine!" Afterwards, he turned and started to round a corner, when a zombie tackled him to the ground, roaring furiously. He appeared to be freshly dead; Dash noted that there must be more of them around.

I could let it get him... he's causing enough problems as it is, thought Rainbow Dash, but instantly regret even considering that. She may kill the undead, and even bandits, but that was when her life depended on it. This was a pony she knew, who had saved her life, and she had considering letting him die like that? No.

Soarin was screaming and desperately balancing between shoving away the zombies battered hooves and keeping it's gray, rotted teeth away from his throat. Rainbow Dash flew in hard, landing headfirst into the zombie's side. If it wasn't freshly dead, it would've tore in half and infected Dash with the spraying blood, but thankfully, all she did was send it flying a few feet. And also damaging her nose; she thought it was broken, as blood was pouring steadily down her face and dripping from her chin, and the pain was almost unbearable.

The zombie, however, just stood up and turned to the still-recovering Dash, eyes full of rage and hunger. Blood oozed out of his face and that mysterious black fluid dripped from his mouth, as he smiled, revealing his crooked, yellow teeth. Then, suddenly, he jumped at Rainbow Dash, and-

BLAM! The zombie dropped straight down to the ground, his head having been blown in half. A nearby building got a new coat of red paint, as blood sprayed all over it. The bittersweet red fluid formed a puddle around the zombie's corpse.

Rainbow Dash had turned to thank Soarin, when she was interrupted by distant yowls and roars. "OH SHIT!" she shouted at the top of her lungs. "They definitely heard that! Pinkie was right!" She reached out her dirty hoof and picked Soarin up off the ground, and then they turned and hastily caught up with the already fleeing ponies.

The undead were all somewhat fresh, the one in the worst condition had only just started losing fur. As a result of their recent turning, their muscles were more intact, and they still had enough energy remaining in their bodies to sprint. So sprint they did, and Dash soon realized running was pointless, as the dead are incapable of feeling exhaustion. However, living ponies can, unfortunately.

"Twilight, over here!" Rainbow Dash shouted suddenly, coming to a complete stop.

"What?!? Are you nuts?" Twilight responded anxiously.

"Trust me! Get over here before they catch up!" The undead were, in fact, closing in rather fast. The rest of the group sat staring, worried yet curious. Twilight sighed and galloped to where Rainbow Dash was impatiently waiting.

"What?"

"Can you cast a spell on them?"

"I can try. Although I studied some battle magic while at the Chrystal Empire, I'm still not too familiar with it..." Twilight directed her horn at the oncoming horde. She shut her eyes tightly, and her horn began to glow.

"ETA thirty seconds!"

Twilight's horn began to form a glowing purple sphere.

"C'mon, Twi! We have about ten seconds!"

The sphere slowly began to grow, with small rays of light beaming off in random directions.

"We have about five seconds! Hurry the fuck up Twilight!"

The undead were frighteningly close. The smell of blood reached Dash's nostrils. This is it... we're done! The magic will fail, and we'll be ripped apart!

And then, as if to directly contradict Rainbow Dash's thoughts, a large whitish-purple beam exploded from the sphere, and the zombie crowd was hidden behind a giant cloud of lavender smoke.The roars were suddenly cut off. When the smoke cleared, all that remained was burnt bone shards and a large pool of blood. The remains of the horde were smoking.

Rainbow Dash breathed a heavy sigh of immense relief, and Twilight lay on the ground, panting heavily from using such a powerful spell. Judging by the look on her face, she was amazed she had even pulled it off.

"Well... I think we're good to go!" Rainbow Dash exclaimed, clapping her hooves together.

"Wow, Twilight... that was amazing!" bellowed Applejack, impressed.

"Wow... we're alive. That was kinda cool, actually!" put in Soarin. Rainbow Dash was surprised; this was the first sign of gratitude Soarin had shown in a while.

"Um... sh-should we still go back? I don't know if it's safe, and I'd hate to see one of us get hurt..." Fluttershy squeaked.

"Obviously the town isn't that safe. You all saw them, how recently they had died? There's more in there, I'm sure of it. We're alive right now based off of sheer luck, but luck runs out, and you never know when. I wouldn't test whether or not we still are. I vote no!" Twilight had a strong, valid point.

"I agree. We didn't survive by needlessly putting our lives on the line!" agreed Rainbow Dash.

"Ah don't know... if there were any more, we would've attracted them as well. We could hide out there, maybe get some supplies. We're runnin' outta food here, and our medical supplies are just a bunch of band-aids," Applejack tossed in her opinion.

"I say no. Rainbow Dash told me about scientists researching this for a cure in Canterlot. Instead of us all getting mauled, how 'bout we go and see if we can help?" Rainbow Dash had completely forgotten about the testing in Canterlot, and Soarin just reminded her.

"All in favor of going to Canterlot?" everypony raised their hooves. "Then off we go!"

We've got a looong walk ahead of us...